President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo
President Akufo-Addo has told the first batch of the Free Senior High School Policy students to pass their West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) come June 2020 with distinction in order to shame some political actors who predicted doom for the policy, ABC News can report.
Addressing the students and tutors of the Nkawkaw Senior High School as part of his three-day tour in the Eastern Region, the President reminded the students of the need to pass the 2020 exams since they are the first beneficiaries of the policy.
He stated that the third-year students had a responsibility to prove to the political actors who thought it was impossible to implement the policy in Ghana that the policy was a worthwhile one.
He further urged them to take full advantage of their three-year stay within the walls of the school for their personal benefit and that of the country.
“So my plea to you is, take full advantage of your presence here, take full advantage of your work both in and outside the classroom and make sure the 3 years that you spend in Nkawkaw senior high school are three years that are profitable to yourself as well as for the nation of Ghana. My second plea is that all of you to know that there are several people in this country, some powerful political actors in our country, in our society who never wanted this free SHS, they described it as a gimmick, they then said it will not work, they said it was too expensive and now they’re saying when they come back to office, God knows when they’re going to review it.
“Those of you who are going to take the exams in June will be the first Free SHS beneficiaries to take the WASSCE exams, you have a big responsibility to make sure that your grades and your exam results are very positive and very exemplary, already you have your school which has a good reputation in terms of the results you’re producing, this next year’s result should be even better than anything that you’ve done before so that together, you and I, we can say shame to those who were detractors” he stated.
The President added that the future of the policy depended heavily on the success or failure of the results of next year’s exams.
“The last appeal to you, the standout of policy it is the results that you produce that will determine the future of the policy but I’m very confident that when the results come, Nkawkaw Senior High School graduates will be in the very forefront of those producing the best results in the school”
President Akufo-Addo has been embarking on working visits since Monday, October 7, 2019.
With the Eastern Region being the last of the three regions he is visiting, after Bono and Ashanti, the President stated that his intention for embarking on regional tours yearly is to be able to interact with the people and ‘see for himself how things are going’.
“This is the third leg of the three region tour I’ve been taking on the country. I began in Bono and I’ve just completed a three-day visit to the Ashanti Region. Now I’m back home, in my own Region, the Eastern Region. I’ve made it a point that every year I’ll find time and visit the Regions and see for myself what’s going on. Anybody who’s running an enterprise will tell you, when you allow the office to become too sweet, a lot of things can go wrong so I like to leave Jubilee House sometimes and come and see for myself how things are going and also listen to the concerns of our people, that’s what brings me here today” he said.
Beginning his tour of the Region at the Nkawkaw Senior High School, President Akufo-Addo promised the school of his commitment to ensuring that some of their infrastructural needs as mentioned by the school’s authorities in preparation towards their Golden Jubilee anniversary are addressed.
“The first stop of my Eastern Regional Tour is Nkawkaw and Nkawkaw Senior High School is the first place I’m talking since I came to the Region. I want to congratulate you for your 50years of endeavour and the golden jubilee celebrations of this year. I’m hoping that on the 9th of November, you’ll find me here at Nkwasco and enable me to attend the celebrations. I want to commemorate your jubilee anniversary as well as my visit here, various matters that the headmaster has put before me, the assembly hall and the provision of the buses systematically are going to be undertaken to commemorate the Golden Jubilee Anniversary” he noted.
Inspection of infrastructural projects and promising same are some of the major reasons the President embarks on his yearly tour.
Thus, the President indicated that the Minister for Roads and Highways, Kwasi Amoako Attah has made plans to construct a 2.8-kilometer internal road in the school.
“On the part of the Assembly hall, the robust Minister of roads has also indicated that he’s going to construct 2.8kilometers of internal roads of the school for you as well so all of this is being done to facilitate your learning” he indicated.
According to the President, his Government’s Free SHS policy is to remove the barrier of lack of money which prevented most children from furthering their education after the Junior High School level.
He stressed that only when education is made free will this generation of young Ghanaians be able to prepare themselves for the technological life of the 21st century.
“I have two points that I want to make in this brief interaction, I want to reinforce the reason why the nation has decided to make this national investment in you and in our education system. This century, the 21st century is going to be about those nations that have prepared themselves for the world we live and the application of technology to solve social and economic issues. that is why we have to make access to education in this generation as broad as possible, we cannot allow money to be a barrier to access to education in our time. If we do that, we’re shooting ourselves in the foot. It is important that Ghana be right out there in preparing itself for life of the 21st century” he added.
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